This looks already very promising! It seems another masterpiece by Kostis is on the way. I am very curious how it will look complete with crew and all.You will cover the sea surface with some glossy varnish or something similar, I suppose?

Dear Stephan, Erik, Egbert, Konrad and Carlos thank you for your kind words. My friend Carlos have excellent holidays. About Niko's sea: http://www.modelhania.gr/forum/index.php?topic=474.0Though the text is in Greek the photos explain everything.In case of my model there is a difference in the transparent waves and sea painting.The sea is painted with Royal blue, then drybrushed with oils, and finally airbrushed with diluted "pebeo vitrail turquoise 17" which made a thin film. For the transparent waves instead of watersoluble acrylic (silikon) was used Liquitex heavy gel with continous hits of the tip of the finger. Next day followed by Winsor& Newton medium passed with the finger again, but not hits this time. Finally Liquitex high gloss varnish sealed everything.

Dear Kostis,thanks for the detailed reply! Your friend Niko seems to be a very talented modeler, please send him my compliments. The idea to use a flame on polystyrene foam for creating the ocean surface is absolutely great! (I suppose this creates a lot of terrible smell, so one has to do it outside of the house and/or when the missus is not at home?) I have used plaster on a board in two of my projects, but this quickly becomes very heavy when you use it for larger areas.

The new pictures show the glossy effect better. Since I have used the glossy varnish method too, I know the difficulties of getting the photos right. In my experience the effect can be seen best when you have a light source from more or less the same direction as the camera viewpoint, because then you get these neat light reflections that give the impression of sunlight on a water surface.

My dear Kostis, it's always unbelievable what wonderful works you form. The whole arrangement, the colors and the atmosphere are very lively, even without figures.

Slowly, i understand the secret of your woman's hair dryer. It must be as in the fairy tale "Aladdin and the Miracle Lamp", only it must be called "Kostis and the Miracle Hairdryer".

I have a request: would you be so friendly and would give me a close-up pic of the takelage of your boat? I am particularly interested in how the ropes are attached to the upper end of the mast. Google has not provided me with any satisfactory results. I would be glad if you could help me...

I still can not find the right words to express my feelings when I see your work developing.For me its a first time experience: to see a simple wooden barge glued together on my wife's dining table, turned into a spectacular sea adventure created by you while on the other side of Europe.Thank you so much for building this ship.I have not painted or rigged anything of this ship myself so every new step you take is both a beautiful novelty and, for technical reasons, very interesting to me.

And my deepest respect to your fellow Nikos Kosmadakis. Wow. A completely different way to make water.

My dear friend Mr. Cryns,I am really happy to read your words again in the forum. I am working on the 4 figures beyond rowers. After this I may change some small things at the boat, before start to work with the rowers.

I am also following this "wip" with great interest. I have deep respect for making the rigging. I am looking forward to see some of Mr.Cryns ships and men produced maybe by a small company in the future. That might be interesting for a lot of people.